Breast Cancer Menubar
Breast Cancer
What are the causes / risk factors of breast cancer? - Lifestyle / environmental / conditional factors
What are the causes / risk factors of breast cancer? -
Lifestyle / environmental / conditional factors
Research at the American Institute of Cancer Research
estimated that about 40% of U.S. breast cancer cases could be prevented by making
better lifestyle choices. This figure is likely
a low estimate, since the latest paleoanthropological research shows that cancer
was virtually nonexistent in humans before poor diet and pollution appeared.
Cancer is a man-made disease
Iron and aluminum
toxicity in breast cancer
Bras and breast cancer
Genes do not have the last word.
Breast cancer risk increases only ~20-30% with a family history of
the disease. Mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are said to increase breast
cancer risk to 80%. However, it is the expression
of your genes that dictates the risk, and not simply their existence.
Gene expression can easily be controlled (by whether they are turned on or not)
via lifestyle and dietary choices.
Conditional factors that increase relative risk for breast cancer
(BC) in women
Relative Risk
Factor
> 4.0
Female Age > 65 - although risk increases across all ages until
80; High
breast tissue density
2.1 - 4.0
One 1st-degree relative with BC;
1.1 - 2.0
Age >30 years at 1st full-term pregnancy;
1.1 - 2.0
Personal history of endometrium, ovary or colon cancer;* Tall height;
* More than
2 alcoholic drinks/day. According to data published in the
British Journal of Cancer in 2002, 4% of all breast cancers (~44,000 cases a
year) in the United Kingdom are due to alcohol consumption. Could this be due to
magnesium depletion in the body consequential
to drinking alcohol?
High breast density affects ability to see abnormal tissue
on a mammogram. Tumors and calcifications show up white, as does
dense breast tissue.
Dense breasts have relatively high amounts of glandular
and connective tissue compared to fatty tissue. The diagram below shows
increasing levels of glandular / connective tissue density, which can only be seen
on mammograms and can not be felt via physical examination.
Breasts are classified as dense if they fall into the
(C) and (D) classifications :
(A) Almost all fatty breast tissue (10% of women)
(B) Scattered dense glandular / connective tissue (40% of
women)
(C) Hetererogeneously dense breast tissue with many areas
of dense glandular / connective tissue (40% of women)
(D) Extremely dense tissue (10% of women)
Although often inherited, other
factors can influence breast density. Including increasing age,
having children and using the estrogen-lowering drug Tamoxifen. Breast tissue density
is also associated with having a low body mass and using postmenopausal hormone
replacement therapy.
Having dense breast tissue does
not increase death rate from breast cancer. Although having high breast
tissue increases risk for breast cancer, research
shows that a woman with dense breast tissue is no more likely to die from breast
cancer than a woman with fatty breast tissue.
The estrogen hormone
ESTRADIOL speeds up breast cancer in
estrogen receptor- sensitive cancer types)
Double blind, placebo controlled,
randomized study used transdermal
Progesterone
and ESTRADIOL on 40 premenopausal
women undergoing breast surgery for the removal of a lump.
The study examined results of two breast biopsies,
one at the beginning of the study and another 13 days later.
- Estrogen
and the Progesterone
did not show up in the serum, but showed up in the breast tissue at over
100% increased levels above placebo. (Chang
et al, 1995)
Results of Breast tissue cell proliferation from biopsies after
13 days Transdermal PROGESTERONE or
ESTRADIOL Administration
Method of Measuring Cell Proliferation ▼
Placebo
Progesterone ESTRADIOL
Mitosis per 1000 Cells
0.51
0.17
0.83
PCNA (proliferating cell nuclear antigen)
- the most accurate method
7.8
1.9
17.4
Study concluded that in normal breast tissue:
• Increased
ESTRADIOL concentration increased
cell proliferation
• Exposure to PROGESTERONE
for 10-13 days reduced ESTRADIOL -induced
proliferation
Based on PCNA numbers (PCNA presence
in actively growing and dividing cells serves as a marker for such cells):
1. Topical
Progesterone
reduced
2. Topical
ESTRADIOL
increased
Progesterone levels
naturally decrease with age. In
women this decrease occurs about the age of 35 and men about ten years later.
Progesterone
balances
estrogen , such that an imbalance of
estrogen over
PROGESTERONE
could be responsible for increased cell proliferation in
estrogen -sensitive
breast cancer.
Estrogen Dominance
References Chang KJ, Lee TTY , Linares-Cruz G, Fournier S, de Lignieres
B (1995) Influences of percutaneous administration of estradiol on human breast
epithelial cell cycle in vivo. Fertility and Sterility; 63; 7865-7891.
Online link
Ikram Ullah, Govindasamy-Muralidharan Karthik, Amjad Alkodsi,
Una Kjällquist, Gustav Stålhammar, John Lövrot, Nelson-Fuentes Martinez, Jens Lagergren,
Sampsa Hautaniemi, Johan Hartman, Jonas Bergh (2018) Evolutionary history of metastatic
breast cancer reveals minimal seeding from axillary lymph nodes. Journal of Clinical
Investigation; DOI:
10.1172/JCI96149
